Emma Perez's Concept Of Manhood Analysis

The concept of manhood is usually defined by including the word masculinity. Because of this, the notion of what “being a man” (manhood) entails is often centered and pictured by society in similar terms. For the most part, manhood is thought to include some of the following characteristics: assertive, aggressive, independent, provider, rational, dominate, emotionless, etc. Due to the commonality that is associated between what constitutes “being a man” and masculinity, men are restricted from living a full human experience (i.e. not showing emotion, having limited relationship and social identities).
In order to address this issue, I will use Emma Perez’s concept of decolonial imaginary-this concept aims to deconstruct the dominant culture’s ideology that has perpetuated oppression throughout history by re-gendering history to herstory. In addition, I will use Ricard Rodriguez’s Carnal Knowledge, and Hurtado’s More than Men: Latino Feminist Masculinities and Intersectionality as a mean to elaborate on hegemonic …show more content…
Now, since there is no concrete way to study history, we are left with the historian’s account which is in turn regarded as historical fact. However, it is important to understand that the historian’s reconstruction of the past is influenced by his/her perspective, beliefs, and identity factors (e.g. gender, race, class, etc.). Consequently, this approach of gathering and building history may result in the perpetuation of oppression. What I mean by this is that history has predominantly resulted for stories to be told as a universalist narrative in which men are included while women are not. In other words, “women’s experience is negated” resulting for history to be “the story of the conquerors, those who have won” while “the vanquished disappear” (Perez 1999, xiv-xv). In turn, because of the omission of women, their perspectives and stories remain unknown to